2014

“Implementing acts” serve the purpose of implementing legislative EU acts. The implementation of legally binding EU acts subject to national law is principally a task of the Member States. If an implementation is required throughout the EU, the basic act provides for a conferment of powers upon the Commission. The Regulation Proposal is laying down the rules for control by Member States of the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers.

2014

In 2010, the Commission will publish a White Paper on the European transport policy for the period of 2010-2020. The present Draft Report of the transport committee presents the European Parliament’s prospective of the challenges and key issues of a future European transport policy. Moreover, it defines concrete “measurable” targets for the transport sector to be accomplished by 2020. For instance, CO2 emissions from the road transport are to be reduced by 20% compared to those in 2010. Finally, the Report takes opposition to an inter-modal competition and instead chooses “effective comodality” as the preferred policy approach in the matter.

2014

Road traffic generates costs that can be split into those directly borne by road users and those imposed on others and the public (so-called external costs, e.g. air pollution, noise pollution, loss of time due to congestion). According to a Commission’s Proposal Member States are to be authorised to include the external costs of road freight transport into road tolls levied on HGV (so-called internalisation). The European Parliament and the Council have not yet reached any agreement on said Proposal. To this end, the Council asked the Commission to have an analysis drawn up exploring the impacts of a possible internalisation.

2014

The strategy „Europe 2020“ replaces the failed strategy of Lisbon and is to „turn“ the EU into a „smart, sustainable and inclusive economy“ delivering “high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion”. The Commission is setting five headline targets to be attained by 2020 with the highest priority being smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The European Council has approved three of the five key targets, but strongly mitigated the other two. Moreover, the Commission is putting forward seven flagship initiatives which are to “commit both the EU and the Member States” and to be pursued by the Commission and the Member States. The Commission intends to monitor progress of target achievement by reports to be provided by the Member States.

2015

With the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon the legal basis for the comitology system- the procedure according to which the EU Commission may adopt acts - was revoked. In future, the delegation of legislative powers to the Commission will be subjected to Art. 290 and 291 TFEU. However, detailed rules regarding the delegation and scrutiny of how these are exercised are not provided for in the new Treaty. These will have to be the objective of an agreement to be concluded between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. However, the interests of these parties differ considerably in parts. In its Communication (COM(2009) 673 the Commission has presented its vision of how the new procedure should be shaped.

2014

The amendment of the Prospectus Directive is part of a simplification programme by the Commission to cut administrative burdens. Against this background, the Commission wants to make it easier to issue securities in the EU. Also, it aims at increasing legal certainty and lowering costs.

2014

The Commission intends to promote the use of public private partnerships in order to mobilise private funds for public investment projects. To this end, it wishes to remove obstacles to the implementation of PPPs in Member States and the EU and to support PPPs through EU funding.